Unbroken
by Chibi-Shibi
Summary: The events that break and heal Louis Weasley.


Louis looks around the park, noticing that most people have already left after the sunset. Feeling slightly bolder, he moves closer to Scorpius and lays his head on his friend's shoulder.

Scorpius stiffens momentarily, but then he snuggles in closer. Louis feels his hand ruffle his hair and a blush begins to creep up his cheeks. They sit like that, in a comfortable silence, for a while, until Louis lifts his head to notice that the stars are coming up.

Scorpius is smiling contentedly, he finds. "You know, you're the only one of my friends who is so concerned about me." There is a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"What about everyone else? Don't they care? Don't they...see?" Louis can never understand how something so obvious as the way Scorpius pretends to smile even when he was hurting inside, is invisible to some people. Perhaps it is only obvious to Louis himself, because he, too, has done it for a long time.

Scorpius shrugs. "They don't, I suppose. I don't quite know."

There is a solemn quiet for a few moments before Scorpius speaks again. "I wish...I wish you would let me kiss you right now, Louis."

His words bring back a barrage of memories for the other wizard. Louis takes a deep breath. "What are we doing, Scorpius?" His voice is wavering slightly, but he hopes the Slytherin wouldn't notice.

"I don't...know. Cuddling, perhaps?"

Scorpius' tone is light and carefree again. The very sentence makes Louis' heart sink, though he was hoping it wouldn't.

"Oh," he replies, almost in a whisper.

Scorpius turns to him. "Are you alright?"

"I...yes. Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

Louis looks away, unable to meet his eyes.

"I cannot answer that question. Why don't you tell me?" Scorpius asks, softly.

Louis feels his eyes fill with tears as he remembers exactly why he couldn't tell Scorpius.

* * *

"You're a great dancer, you know."

Louis smiled widely at the words of praise, staring straight back at Teddy. He always thought that the latter looked the happiest when he was dancing, like right now.

Louis would never have expected that asking his friend to teach him dance would turn into something like this. In the beginning, they had simply been close friends.

Until, things began to change. They would often be so caught up in conversation, that both the dance they were supposed to be learning, and the time of the day would be forgotten.

Then the late night owls began to arrive more and more frequently, because their conversations were far too scintillating to end. They ranged from mundane things, like their respective Hogwarts assignments, to the fantastical, where they would spend hours debating the principles of philosophy.

Louis had not intended to fall for Teddy Lupin. He really hadn't. All his friends had been against the older Gryffindor, and had 'warned' him.

But after everything that happened, how could he help it? How could he not like someone who thought like him, understood him and even loved him back?

He knew he wasn't like most other people. He couldn't relate when his friends spoke about certain things. Those acts seemed to...simply not be his cup of tea. He was terrified of telling anyone, especially his family. That is, anyone except Teddy. Teddy would understand. Louis could always confide in Teddy, right? It never struck him, even for a moment, that the latter might take it...differently.

"I have something to tell you," he mentioned as casually as he could, one evening.

"Mm hmm?" Teddy nodded, not really paying attention.

"I'm ace."

Teddy looked up, in shock. "What? What do you mean?"

Louis was taken aback at the sudden change in his boyfriend's demeanour.

"It means asexual. I don't-"

"I understand," Teddy said, cutting him off.

But he didn't, as Louis soon found out. He didn't understand, because suddenly there were fewer letters, fewer late nights, fewer dance-lessons-that-were-an-excuse-to-make-conversation.

Until the day, when a very curt note told him that he had merely been an 'infatuation', and not love.

It broke him.

* * *

"Louis?"

Scorpius' voice brings him partially back from his daze, but there is still a tightening in his chest. It comes from the years of wondering if he was not good enough, or even _wrong,_ and the realisation that even when he thought he had figured himself out, he would never fit in. It is the fear of history repeating itself.

 _Perhaps,_ Louis tells himself, not yet daring to speak aloud, _that his family and Teddy have been right all along. He is just being foolish. What he has been thinking of himself isn't right...he doesn't belong-_

"LOUIS!"

He jumps at the sudden sound. Scorpius is looking at him. Concernedly.

"Are you afraid?" the latter asks, staring into his eyes. "Are you scared of something I would say or do?"

Louis reluctantly nods.

Scorpius sighs and looks up at the sky. "People are broken, you know. Torn, dented, scratched, maimed...inside and out. I used to see my parents, especially my father, and wonder why no one could fix them. Because all these broken people...they hurt others, sometimes. But most of all, they hurt themselves."

Scorpius continues after a short pause. "And then I wondered… why do they need fixing? Everyone and everything is broken in some way anyway. We just need to remind them of this fact."

Louis stares in awe at the sudden change in Scorpius. It was almost as if he is a different person. Someone who has been through pain, and learned how to move past it. He clasps his trembling hands, gathering his strength.

"I wanted to let you know...before we walked into anything...that is to say...I-I'm asexual. I didn't intend to deceive you or anything..." His voice trails off.

Scorpius does not flinch. His eyes are filled with tenderness, and sympathy. It shocks Louis, the contrast between him and Teddy.

When Scorpius finally speaks again, he looks determined. He is angry, Louis realises, but not at him.

"Did they tell you it wasn't okay? That you were wrong for being _you_?"

Louis can hardly whisper out an "yes".

"Then let me tell you. Let me tell you why I would rather spend time with you than any of my friends. Let me tell you why you deserve so much better than the people who deny you your identity."

Louis' breath caught in his throat.

"I like you for you, Louis."

It isn't hard to be unbroken again.

* * *

 _Author's Notes: Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction CO=ompetition  
_

 _Position: Beater 2_

 _Team: Chudley Cannons_

 _Main Prompt: Theme: Coming of age or coming into your own_

 _Optional Prompts: (character) Louis Weasley, (theme) Falling in love with the wrong person/thing, (dialogue)_ _And then I wondered… why do they need fixing? Everyone and everything is broken in some way anyway._

 _Word count: 1126 ( )_


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